Southwest Key is hiring for some of its 12 Phoenix-area facilities. The agency has more than 5,000 unaccompanied youth – a minority who are separated – in its 24/7 child-care facilities in 7 states.

"Have you applied online," an intake worker wearing a Southwest Key T-shirt asked a prospective applicant at a job fair in Mesa.

Questions followed to confirm that the applicant is bilingual in Spanish and English, is at least 21 years old and has worked with children for at least a year. Organizers also wanted to know whether or not the individual had previously applied with the organization and if they have any relatives working for it.

Southwest Key has the largest federal contract to care for unaccompanied immigrant children and has received at least $458 million this fiscal year to shelter minors.

Southwest Key has been under scrutiny ever since the Trump administration's controversial practice of separating immigrant children from parents as part of its zero-tolerance policy at the border thrust the non-profit organization to the forefront of the national conversation.

The organization has 13 facilities in Arizona — 12 of which are in the Phoenix metro area — and provides 24/7 child care for more than 5,000 minors in its facilities across seven states. ​

Southwest Key advertisedthat it is hiring counselors, therapists, social workers, teachers, cooks and youth-care workers for two of its Mesa facilities. It is scheduled to have another hiring event on Friday in Phoenix for positions at some of its five Phoenix facilities.

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Seated behind a folding table, an intake worker inquired whether an individual's previous child-care experience was paid or unpaid. Unpaid work, such as volunteering with a Boys & Girls Club, did not disqualify a prospective youth-care worker, but set them on track for a temporary position. The youth-care worker, who earns $15.22 an hour, is required to have a high-school diploma or GED, experience working with youth, computer literacy and a flexible work schedule.

These workers who provide direct-care supervision for youth would be expected to work six days a week until the workload decreased, and then work five days on and two days off. By 1 p.m. Monday, all first-shift positions had been taken, requiring subsequent applicants to choose between working a 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. or a 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. schedule.

Four hours into the hiring event in Mesa, the staff working the reception table greeted a steady stream of new applicants, but many chairs in the waiting room sat empty.

"I didn't stay because I overheard that the positions were only for the Mesa facilities," said Elvia Martin del Campo, a Phoenix resident applying for a teacher position. "They have another place close to where I live."

Another applicant remarked that the hiring fair was "way less crazy than the one in Phoenix."

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Government provided video shows more than 1,100 people inside metal cages in a warehouse that's divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children.
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After applicants had checked in, they were called into an adjacent room where hiring managers would have a face-to-face interview.

Gabriela Gordillo walked out of the Mesa InterStake Center dejected. She had been encouraged to apply to Southwest Key by a friend who worked there. She was motivated by a desire to work with the children.

Gordillo has experience working as a child-care provider in Arizona, but she was ineligible to apply for Southwest Key’s youth-care worker position. Her high-school diploma from Mexico made her ineligible, and instead she was prepared to apply to be a cook, but was at first told her resume was no good.

The hourly wage for a cook listed on Indeed.com, a site several applicants cited as their source for information about the job, is $15.21 an hour or $121 after an eight-hour day.

Though Southwest Key’s Unaccompanied Children’s Program has been around for more than 20 years, the organization is increasingly in the spotlight. The organization has been accused of benefiting from President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, allegedly having a policy that prohibits children from hugging one another, and violating both state policies and internal policies on restraining minors.

According to an intake worker at the recruitment fair, individuals who are hired would receive first-aid, CPR and restraint training. The job description for a youth-care worker reads that staff must be able to apply agency-approved "restraint techniques and otherwise manage or coerce the full weight of an adolescent."

Southwest Key did not respond to an Arizona Republic request for comment on any changes made to its restraint policy. Phoenix New Times reported that Southwest Key removed its policy saying children could be restrained during an outburst after a 2017 Arizona Department of Health Services investigation.

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Following media coverage on the Trump administration's family separations, Southwest Key Programs issued a statement:

"Southwest Key Programs does not support separating families at the border. For 30 years, our work in offering youth justice alternatives, immigrant children's shelters, and education has served to improve the lives of thousands of young people. We believe keeping families together is better for the children, parents and our communities, and we remain committed to providing compassionate care and reunification."